Society pays a high price for what happens to its women, Associate Professor Mary Harvey said in her opening address at the research symposium on gender-based violence.

But research information on resilience and the nature of resilience among victims of gender-based violence had become increasingly important to effective intervention, added Harvey, of the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.

"The epidemiology of violence in the US has been thriving for the past 30 years. Women are at higher risk than men in every category of domestic violence and women in intimate relationships are at a huge risk."

The root of the problem, she said, lay in male socialisation.

The symposium was hosted by UCT's Department of Psychology and organised by the department's Dr Floretta Boonzaaier and Anastasia Maw, and was held at the Saartjie Baartman Centre in Manenberg. It gathered internationally renowned researchers in the field and created a forum to discuss research challenges and the interface between research and service provision.